The 2008 election is finally over. Former Minnesota senator and incumbent Norm Coleman has officially conceded the race to Senator-Elect Al Franken, after the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously decreed that Franken was the winner. Two hundred and thirty-nine days after the election was held, it should be noted.

For his tenacity and patience, and for his 314-vote victory, we must congratulate Franken. Though the entire process was long and frustrating, the people of Minnesota saw the recount and state court case as a fair and legitimate process, which is important in disputed elections (as we're all aware). But, as far as state law is concerned, the Minnesota Supreme Court had the final say. If Coleman had pushed on to file a federal lawsuit in an attempt to put the issue before the United States Supreme Court, he risked the wrath of the state's voters for continuing to deny them a second seat in the Senate, with very little chance of success for Coleman holding onto his seat.

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Tomorrow will be an important date in the history of America's involvement in Iraq. Because it is the first milestone on the timeline for withdrawal that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki wrested from George W. Bush late last year. Which means, barring unforeseen circumstances (always a possibility in a war zone), tomorrow will mark the beginning of the end of America's military presence in Iraq.

What will happen tomorrow (and by some media reports, has already occurred) is that the American forces will completely pull out of Iraqi cities and withdraw to bases outside of the towns. Iraqis are already celebrating this withdrawal, and tomorrow has been declared "National Sovereignty Day" to mark the occasion in Iraq.

What this will ultimately mean depends on a number of important factors, none of which can be accurately predicted at this point. Looking back on this date in the future, it may be seen as overdue, timely, or rashly premature. Will the violence spike as a result? Will American troops begin returning home rapidly, or slowly? Will Maliki's government be able to stand on its own? Will the Iraq military be up to the job of providing security? Will the huge political questions the Iraqis have (successfully, so far) postponed finally be addressed in one way or another? About the only concrete analysis which can be made at this point is that there are more questions right now than answers.

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It's been a crazy rollercoaster of a week, and at the end of it, California can proudly state that not only do we no longer have the most embarrassing governor in the country, we are not even in the top three anymore! With the antics of Rod Blagojevich, Eliot Spitzer, and (now) Mark Sanford, we've slipped into fourth place in the state comedians look to for jokes. Or course, some might argue that Spitzer doesn't belong in that category since he's no longer governor of New York, but then the guy who replaced him started his term by admitting his own bedroom wandering, so I'm still going to include New York.

Speaking of New York craziness, Albany appears to be mired in a schoolyard spat of its own, as duelling senates tried to hold two independent sessions (one Republican-led, one Democratically-led, both with gavels) -- from the same room. You just can't make this stuff up, folks.

But back to Sanford's problems for a moment, because Salon's War Room gave their Quote Of The Day to anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist for his take on Sanford's affair, which simply must be reproduced here for your enjoyment: "It does indicate that men who oppose federal spending at the local level are irresistible to women."

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Every so often I get a wild-and-crazy idea on a subject I know little about. These usually are later proven to be unworkable or unwise (by people who do know what they're talking about), but this low level of success shall not deter me. Because right now, in the midst of two roaring debates ("how to pay for healthcare reform" and "how to wean ourselves off foreign oil"), there seems to be a partial answer to both that nobody has hit upon yet. Instead of paying for healthcare by taxing soda, sugar, fast food, tobacco, or liquor (all of which have been proposed so far, as well as other less-direct taxes like tinkering with the income tax system), why not tax plastic?

I'm not talking about credit cards, here, I'm talking about the substance used to make them -- and every other plastic item Americans consume voraciously. The plastic itself, in other words. Which comes (a fact not known by all) from oil. This was seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the Gulf Coast oil refineries were shut down -- which caused a severe shortage of the raw material for many of the most popular types of plastic. This shortage was... well... a short one (sorry, I won't do that again), and barely made a blip in the news. But it did point out the relationship between petroleum and plastic.

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The American media has an enormous double standard on portrayals of violence on our television screens. It can be succinctly summed up as: real-world violence is obscured or (even worse) turned into a cartoon, but fictional violence is shown in stunningly full-color and high-definition clinical graphic detail -- for our entertainment. This disconnect is infantile. It is a form of censorship that the American public, for the most part, isn't even really aware of. But sometimes, as in the footage of the death of Neda from Iran, the disconnect itself is glaringly apparent.

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President Obama had his fourth press conference today, the first one that wasn't in primetime. As expected, most of the questions were on Iran and healthcare reform. The healthcare reform battle has changed in the past few days, but Obama is still the chief spokesman so far. And he's doing a much better job of standing up for the public option than anyone else out there, so it is worth reading his words to see how other Democrats should be framing this issue.

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Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts has introduced two pieces of legislation on marijuana -- one medical, and one recreational -- that deserve a lot more attention (and support by fellow House members) than they have been getting. The first would change federal law to allow states to experiment with medical marijuana without interference from Washington. And the second would drastically reduce federal penalties for "personal possession" of marijuana.

The medical marijuana bill aims to fix a problem in the federal classification of marijuana. The problem was best summed up in a live performance by Bill Maher I saw a number of months ago, where he talked about medical marijuana laws that states such as California (and others) have passed. I don't remember his exact words, but it went something like this: "It's still illegal to grow it, it's illegal for doctors to prescribe it, it's illegal to sell it, it's illegal to buy it, but if a joint happens to fall from the sky into your lips, then it's OK to smoke it."

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Welcome back to your weekly Friday Talking Points roundup. This week will be a bit unusual, as instead of the normal list of talking points Democrats everywhere should be using this weekend in conversations (especially with the media), I'm devoting the entire talking points segment to one single issue -- why what President Obama is doing on the situation in Iran is exactly the right thing to do, and why his hands are tied (by the ropes of American history) so that saying anything more enthusiastic than he's already said would actually be counterproductive if you support the Iranians currently marching in the streets. Because there is a giant elephant in the room of the discussion of American/Iranian relations that nobody wants to discuss, and nobody (other than Obama himself) is even admitting exists -- an elephant with the year "1953" painted on its side. But more about that later, let's take care of the weekly chores first.

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The debate in Washington over healthcare reform seems to be missing an important voice: the public. Where are the crowds of people demanding better healthcare? Where are the voices of those who have healthcare horror stories to tell? Where is the grassroots effort to define the problem adequately?

Sadly, I have no answers to those questions. I suspect, if anyone bothered to find out, the answer would be: "They're busy working at their jobs, terrified they'll be fired and lose what health insurance they've got."

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My first choice of a headline for today's column was "Obama's Gay Honeymoon Over," but then I thought better of it. President Obama is currently trying to placate a group of supporters who are not in a mood to be impressed right now with mere incrementalism. Gay rights supporters, quite rightly, are now asking Obama point-blank: "When are you going to make good on all those promises you made to us on the campaign trail? How long are we supposed to wait?"

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